Stuck in Sunnydale
by WestSunnydale
Summary: Willow's infamous spell trying to get Buffy back goes even wronger than in Canon. Instead of ripping Buffy out of heeaaaven, it brings a certain blonde that looks a lot like Buffy into a situation she REALLY hates - for the third time and counting
1. Stuck in a Coffin

Authors Note: This story owes a debt of gratitude to to the one where Sean Bean gets stuck in Westeros, also published on this very website. I'm not sure how mature the themes will eventually get, but as a non-native English speaker not from the US I do not feel bound by the puritan attitude towards "coarse language", so be warned that there will be - in my opinion situation appropriate - swearing from the get-go. Also, I am a fan of the Series and the Buffyerse but there may be commentary by characters that you might consider unkind to certain characters or plot points or aspects of the fandom. If you can't handle that (and if you cannot distinguish the opinion of an author from the opinion of their characters), maybe fiction isn't the kind of entertainment for you... Also, I apologize in advance for run-on sentences, weird word choice and any errors of grammar punctuation and spelling. English is not my native language.

**Chapter I**

**Stuck in a Coffin**

"Fuck you Joss!" Those were all the words Sarah Michelle Gellar could get out. Well actually, that should be Sarah Michelle Prince, but her stage-name and the one the Actors' Union knew her under was still her maiden name. For some mysterious reason, she was trapped in a coffin _again. _Joss Whedon _knew_ she hated that – and he made her do it anyway. Twice. Well this was the third time. Only this time it was for real. How did she get here? She had no idea. She'd had one drink after her role as the Seventh Sister on Star Wars Rebels had wrapped. It had been nice to work with her beloved Freddie again and she got along reasonably well with the rest of the cast even though she did not quite care for Kiddie TV any longer – she'd had had enough of that in her career. But a forty-something woman, even a very smart and attractive forty-something woman cannot be overly picky when it comes to acting jobs. Damn sexist Hollywood. At any rate, she was here in this damn coffin in a ridiculous black dress, that she'd worn exactly once before – on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

_Oh crap_ it slowly dawned on her. Either this was a particularly twisted nightmare – and she rarely had those – or she somehow got stuck in the worst year of Buffy's life. She still half remembered most of her scenes. And she knew in _that_ scene she had to dig herself out of her grave. Fuck that shit. Why did Joss Whedon torture his protagonists like that? Unfortunately Buffy was a super-powered teenager, while Sarah Michelle Gellar was not. Still, she started digging, hoping that she'd get some sort of passage aboveground before her oxygen would run out. Oh this would be all sorts of no fun at all.

While she dug, Sarah tried to remember how that episode went on. A lot of BtVS had been shot out of sequence and she had forgotten many key plot-points, it was almost twenty years ago after all. There was still the occasional reunion or comic-con to please the nerds and she would sometimes get awfully specific questions on minor details of the lore, but she usually had Anthony, James or Joss answer them. Sarah had also never gotten around to reading the comics. Apparently she had a lesbian hookup in one of them. Interesting, but then again, she was a bit glad that she did not have to play _that _on camera. She'd have done that of course if necessary for the plot, just like she did all the cemetery shit Joss wanted her to do (at least by Season Two she'd gotten him to agree to have most shot at fake cemeteries. With all the crappy CGI it actually fit the overall aesthetics of the show better than the real deal), but she thought a lesbian hookup of an otherwise clearly straight character pretty gratuitous. With Willow and Tara it at least was a genuinely romantic relationship that got proper time to be built up.

At any rate, superpowers or not, she could almost sense her hand touching air by now. A bit more digging and she'd be through. What was it that happened after she got out of her grave? She knew she'd played an almost catatonic depressive state throughout Season Six which got Tara written out of the series, Allyson Hannigan got saddled with one of the worst makeup jobs she could remember (thankfully her scenes with Allyson while she was in that ridiculous getup had been rather short) and Michelle had to play klepto-Dawn with _major _abandonment issues. Well if she'd be stuck in that crap-hell, she might as well make it a marginally better place. Oh and if she could at all get to Warren, she'd tear him to shreds herself. She was out of the grave now and recognized one major thing: Her grave had been on an abandoned piece of forest quite outside any cemetery and away from settled areas and she had no idea whatsoever which direction Sunnydale was. After all, there weren't really maps of the place, and if there were she'd surely not memorize them. But being recently not-dead excused a bit of disorientation, so she thought "what the hell" and simply headed in a direction that seemed plausible.

Eventually she got to see some signs of civilization, meaning she'd either headed in the right direction or far enough in the wrong one. Now if only she could remember Buffy's address. It was something with R... Rapallo Drive? Nah, that was a German-Soviet Treaty from the 1920s. Rubella Drive? Nah, that was an illness. Ridcully Drive? Nah, that was a character in Terry Pratchett novels… And she was not even sure the Magic Box – the set they all hung out at after they got rid of the extremely awkward to shoot at library set – even _had _a canonical address. And as the sun was down already, anybody she might've asked about directions might as soon have told her where to go and started attacking her. Thing was, she was not a super-powered teenager but a forty-something actress stuck in the body of a twenty-something with incredibly impractical attire. Speaking of which, it made her tear up a bit inside, but she'd ditched the shoes first chance she got to be able to walk faster further and without pain – her life might depend on it eventually. When she finally got to the outskirts of town – for a "one Starbucks place" Sunnydale was actually pretty sizable – she saw a fair bit of riot, with stuff burning and people apparently fleeing something. _Shit_. She'd forgotten all about the "biker demons" that had attacked at the beginning of Season Six. How would she extricate herself from _that? _

Authors Note: I have not yet plotted it all out, but I am pretty sure a certain redhead witch is in for a major dressing-down. If you want to leave plot suggestions or guesses along with your review, be my guest.


	2. Stuck in a shop

Somehow Sarah had managed to find the Magic Box. She wasn't exactly sure anybody was home, it looked quite abandoned, but at least she could wait here for Buffy's friends to show up eventually. She opened the door to be greeted by Anya "Go away, we've been looted already. The home supply store down the street has nice toasters". "Anya, I..." Sarah tried getting out. "Oh Buffybot, you were programmed to return to Willow if you're damaged. Did your homing device get broken?" Anya replied. "Listen, I'm not the Buffybot", Sarah said. "That is quite impossible. Buffy is dead. I saw myself how we put her in the ground. Like we had put her mother into the ground. When you put humans into the ground, they do not get up again, unless they were bitten by a vampire. Were you bitten by a vampire?" Anya said deadpan. "Look, Anya, this is hard to explain, but first of all, you did not actually invite me in, so I couldn't go in if I were a vampire, but please go ahead and stick a cross in my face or bathe me in holy water just to make sure. Willow did a spell. And it went wrong. Or maybe it did exactly what Willow intended. At any rate, I am here now. And I _really _don't want to be here."

Anya looked a bit bewildered before she asked "If you do not want to be here, why did you come to the Magic Box…?" after a pause she said "Oh, you mean 'here' as in ''Sunnydale' as in 'this dimension'? Well let's hope we can get you back to wherever you want to go then. And let's hope we do not get you to the dimension with nothing but shrimp. Unless of course you like shrimps, in that case I hope we don't accidentally transfer you to the dimension without any shrimp or..." "Woah", Sarah said " That's some Willow level babbling right there. But you're right. I'm really not in the dimension I want to be in right now. And Willow is to blame. So if you could get that red headed b…. witch here post haste, that would be just extraordinarily excellent" "You really aren't Buffy", Anya said "You use words that Buffy wouldn't know if a dictionary hit her in the face. And you have not once resorted to made up words like 'vampire-y' or 'wiggins-inducing'. Are you Buffy's much more eloquent evil counterpart from a hell dimension?" - "Look, I… I just want to not die. And I want to talk to Willow, who brought me here."

Tara emerged from behind the counter where she had duck to hide from whatever was coming. "L-look", she said "I want to talk to Willow as well, but the spell… Sh- she has not returned yet and I do not know where she is." Sarah was surprised to see Tara in the Magic Box, but she was not unhappy to see her. With any luck her witchcraft would come in handy. "Tara, can you find Willow, or I don't know, give her a call? You did bring your cell phone when you went out at midnight attempting extremely dangerous Black Magic while leaving Dawn with a soulless bloodsucking vampire as a babysitter, didn't you?", Sarah said. Tara looked _really _uncomfortable by now. Apparently the thought of cell phones had not even occurred to her despite their obvious usefulness, especially for someone in her line of work. "Well, w-we have not actually thought of that, no. But now that you mention it, I do know a spell or two that can guide Willow to the Magic Box safely in case she's gotten lost." "Well what on _earth _are you waiting for?" Buffy yelled at Tara with a death glare in her eyes.

This might not be fair to Tara, who she was sure had only been too in love with and too intimidated by Willow to tell her girlfriend what a stupid idea the spell had been, but right now Sarah needed to vent, and if it hit the wrong target, so be it. While Tara was getting to it with the magic and stuff, Sarah had another idea. "Anya, what time is it in England right now? Early morning? I think we need to call Giles", Sarah said. Anya fiddled with a notebook where important things such as Giles' English phone number and the time difference with England were written down before she got to the phone and dialed what appeared to be a never-ending string of digits. "Yes…? Yes? Hello Giles, this is Anya. No the store is fine. Well now anyways, it might get looted later… Look, Giles, can we postpone the small talk for later? This phone call is expensive. Someone who looks like Buffy but isn't her has come through the door and Sunnydale is being attacked by biker demons and I cannot get a hold of Xander or Willow… You'll look into a way to fight the demons? Excellent. And you'll be on the next flight to Los Angeles? Great. Thank you Giles. Please call me back as soon as you know how we can fight the demons without damage to my shop" having said that, Anya hang up.

Sarah let out a sigh. The only thing she could do right now was wait for Willow to get here so she could have a little "talk" with her about the dangers of messing with magic you clearly do _not_ understand and how she should get right on creating an incredibly dangerous rift through dimensions to get a certain actress back to her husband and her two beautiful children. Hopefully Giles would find a way to fight the biker demons, because ax or no ax, black belt in Taekwondo or no black belt in Taekwondo she really did not fancy a life or death fight with a bunch of biker-demons without some sort of backup.

"B- Buffy", Tara said, apparently done with her spell by now "Do you know where Dawn is? We've tried calling Revello Drive..." _Revello, of course _that_ had been the name of her home address. Now if only she knew the number _"And nobody is picking up the phone..." "Oh my God, Dawn… How could I forget about her? Is she going to be okay? Do you think Spike can protect her? Or will Spike attack her?" Sarah said with a certain panic in her voice. Dawn was a lot like Michelle and while she could be annoying at times, she still felt a big-sisterly obligation to keep her safe. "I d-don't think Spike will harm your sister. First of all, there is the chip and second of all, he's in love with you Buffy and he's sworn to protect your sister because he failed to keep you from dying." Tara said in a soothing voice. Wow. Sarah had torn into Tara for something that wasn't her fault and instead of giving her back some of her crap, Tara comforted her when she worried for her sister. The world clearly needed more Taras in it. And if Sarah could do a thing about it, it would have Tara in it for a long time to come. Wait, was she making plans for a world she had wanted to leave at the first opportunity just a few minutes ago?

**Willow's POV**

Willow finally saw the light that Tara had sent her to guide her home. Thank G-ddess. Not only would the light show her the way home, it also made her know that the love of her life was safe. At least that was one piece of good news on a really bad day. Buffy was gone. The Urn of Osiris had been broken and there was no replacement. She'd lost her best friend and there was nothing she could do about it. If only there was a spell to repair the Urn somehow… Xander offered to help her walk, the spell had drained her quite a bit and together the finally made it to the Magic Box.

Author's Note: So I hope I can keep up the writing pace, given I'll start a new job come Monday and the Semester at Uni will start again in April... Don't worry, I have some ideas for what Sarah's next steps will be, but apart from one character, I don't quite know what the reactions to her revelations will be (and unlike a certain blonde Slayer, SMG does not feel the need to protect the Scoobie Gang from the truth). Can you guess where she'll go once the Biker Demons are dealt with? Let's just say, there's always got to be Slayer on the Hellmouth... Oh and one more thing, why does Willow spell "G-ddess" like that? She's Jewish. Maybe not in terms of faith any more, but such habits are hard to shake.


	3. A Dressing Down

**Chapter III**

"Willow Danielle Rosenberg!" Sarah shouted with quite some venom almost as soon as Buffy's supposed best friend was through the door "What in the name of all that's unholy did you _think _messing with forces way beyond your control trying to go the wrong way on a magical one-way street? Did it ever enter into your little nerd-brain that maybe, just maybe Buffy was _fine _where she was? That there are consequences to magical actions?" "B- but, Buffy", Willow tried to start. "Don't you 'But Buffy' me! I'm not Buffy. I don't have superpowers but unlike her, I _will _give you a piece of my opinion and you _will _listen. Your messing with the big whatever from high atop the thing did thankfully not yank your supposed best friend out of heaven against her will, but what it did do was put me, who's done nothing in life to deserve this into a coffin in the middle of a world that seriously needs a plural for 'apocalypse'. What exactly did you think was going to happen? Buffy would just return, no worse for wear, thank you and solve your problems for you? Or were you going to, what, just do a spell on her to make her forget about the heaven you pulled her out of? And while I'm not an expert on magic, even _I _know that it always comes with a price. Which price are you willing to pay? If it's your life that is due one day for Buffy's, maybe you can handle. But what if it is Tara's life?"

"Leave Tara out of this", Willow tried to interject. "I'm certainly _not _leaving Tara out of this. She loves you. That's the only reason she signed off on your harebrained scheme to begin with. She knew it was wrong. But she loves you and her love sometimes makes her incapable of saying no to you, of putting a stop to you. But I swear to God, Willow if you ever do anything to hurt Tara, if you continue down your magic-fueled power trip, if you continue messing with things you should seriously not mess with, I will _end _you and if it is the last thing I do in this world" Sarah felt a bit better after having vented like this, but unfortunately it brought her no closer to solving any of her many problems.

**Willow's PoV**

Oh my G-ddess… This woman says she's not Buffy? Then who is she? What went wrong with the spell? And why does she know Tara and I have been having discussions about magic? And what's that with the price? I thought vomiting up a snake is a pretty high price all by itself… And why did she… Oh my … Is… Is Tara in danger? "L-look", Willow got finally out "I, I don't know who you are and why you look like Buffy, but what we're doing here was not selfish. Well, okay, maybe it was a bit selfish, I wanted my best friend back, but… Buffy was a Champion. She alone could fight against the forces of evil. A-and with us being on this big evil-y Hellmouth here, there's quite a lot of evil to be fought. Besides, Dawn already lost her mother. She can't lose her sister as well. She needs somebody in her life who's there for her. We've tried to while, you… While Buffy was… gone, but Buffy is blood. We are not." Willow headed towards Tara who looked seriously distraught with the situation. She didn't quite know, whether Tara was angry at her, at the woman wearing Buffy's face or simply upset by events.

She was usually so good at knowing exactly what Tara thought and wanted. Oh Tara, why hadn't she listened to her? "You know", not-Buffy said with a slightly calmer voice now "There has been a Slayer who's not blonde and on the Hellmouth and six feet under for a while now…." "Y- You can't be serious!" Willow said. Was this woman seriously proposing to stage a jailbreak to get the homicidal maniac who had very nearly murdered everyone in this room – well maybe except for Anya, but who's counting – in the same town as her? Where on earth did she get _that _idea? Clearly this was _not _Buffy. Buffy hated Faith's breathing guts. Buffy had put Faith into a coma, where that brunette bitch belonged. "Are you really saying we should get Faith here onto the Hellmouth so she can finish what she started the last time around? Need I remind you of the time she kidnapped me? The time y-, the time Buffy put a knife in her stomach after she poisoned Angel? Or the whole body switch thing?"

**Sarah's PoV**

Sarah had to suppress a chuckle. Ah, the body-switcheroo episode. Eliza had played a scarily convincing Buffy. And it had been an interesting change of pace to play Faith in Buffy's body for once. At any rate, she had thankfully listened to Willow's excuse for trying to bring Buffy back. And she'd throw it right back in her face. "Miss Rosenberg," Sarah was still not entirely sure how she'd remembered Willow's middle name – had that one even been in the script? "You know as well as I that people can change. Look at you, once the meek girl hopelessly in love with Xander of all people too shy to stand up for herself to save her own life, and now look at what you've become? You're a confident, almost arrogant, openly lesbian witch that thinks she can mess with incredibly powerful magic, and almost but not quite gets it right. Do you really think Faith is incapable of change? Incapable of learning from her mistakes? Angel did a lot of bad things back in his day. Hell, you thought it a good idea to have Spike babysit my sister and he doesn't even have a soul, only a chip in his brain that could just stop working at any given second. Do you really think you are one to lecture me on the dangers of giving Faith another chance? Besides, she turned herself in. Does that not show you she wants to change?"

Willow replied: "Well, she turned herself in because she knew she was dangerous. She wanted to keep herself of the streets." "Do you hear yourself talking?" , Sarah scoffed "If she really did turn herself in because she feared hurting others, that alone proves she's not the time bomb with an incredibly short fuse that you remember. I know you were jealous of her from the get-go. Her being just a bit more at ease with who she is, her spending time with Buffy, her and Buffy sharing things in common you could not possibly understand. And when she came for Xander, you just put her on the 'evil' pile never to be looked at again" "Errm, excuse me", came a voice from the back "Being as you two have been yelling at each other as if nobody else is in the room, and you just talked about me, let me give my opinion here as well", Xander said "Look, I don't like Faith anymore than you do, Willow. Well, I liked her enough once to think sleeping with her was a good idea.. " Anya shot Xander a death glare "right… But I think this woman, whoever she is and why ever she is wearing Buffy's face is right. We need a Slayer in Sunnydale. If you did not think that was the case until now, the Biker Demons should have clued you in by now. And if Faith has not reformed, let the Council or Angel or whoever deal with her. I say we give her the same chance we gave Buffy after she ran away from her duty. The same chance we for some reason I still don't quite understand keep giving Spike. The same chance we've given Anya, who, I might remind you, used to be a vengeance demon saddling men with torturous punishments for scorning women for centuries. Besides, we really need somebody to fight the forces of evil."

Author's note: I was not sure how I should handle SMG revealing her identity to the Scoobies. The reveal with Anya just follows Rule of Funny, but I think it would be out of character - and not good for her long term survival - for SMG to pretend to be super-powered when she isn't. I'm not sure she'll be comfortable talking about her life before Willow's spell, though. Maybe there could even be a glamor?


	4. Let's go to LA

**Chapter IV**

**Let's go to LA**

"Boy I'm sure glad we asked Giles how to defeat the biker demons", Xander said the next day. "Yep, who would've known they were allergic to bees?" Willow added. "Well at least we did not have to conjure up bunnies", Anya chimed in. "I'm just glad Dawn is okay", Sarah said thoughtfully. "Well you are very much welcome, Buffy. I defended her with my life, is all, but don't even mention it" Spike said. Sarah had decided to keep Spike in the dark as to her real identity and everybody else decided to play along. The peroxide blond vampire had given them all an earful about the consequences of magic and how wrong it had been to mess with forces beyond their control, but as Sarah had already given that speech to Willow, everyone just kinda reacted in a "You're right, but we're sure as hell not agreeing with _you"_ way. Sarah was glad they'd survived her first day in Sunnydale, but now she knew that she had to do more important stuff than hang around with the Scoobies if she wanted to stay alive long enough to find the way back to the real world.

Sarah knew where she needed to go, first of all to talk to Angel, the love of Buffy's life, and second to see if she could find Freddie, the love of Sarah Michelle Gellar's life. But unfortunately, Buffy was pretty broke. Turns out Willow and her better half had been living rent-free as house guests on a very generous grant of the Buffy Anne Summers foundation for the last couple of weeks. She'd already asked them to chip in with rents and utilities and they would have to cancel the cable contract – well there was pretty much only shit on, anyways in those pre-Netflix days – but when Sarah saw the look in Dawn's eyes at even the suggestion that Tara and Willow might be moving out, Sarah knew that she could not threaten them with that to get them to pay their share. Thankfully Giles had – after some prodding – agreed to "transfer some funds onto Buffy's account for the immediate necessities", turns out there was a "retirement bonus" the Council paid to Watchers who got their Slayer killed. Man, those dudes were creepy in the way they treated the Slayers. So Sarah had the money for a round trip ticket to Los Angeles and thus would be headed to Sunnydale station in a few hours for the one daily train from Sunnydale to Los Angeles Union Station. She sure as hell would _not _ride a bus from Sunnydale bus station, favorite arrival point of creepy Inca Mummy Girls with a thang for innocent Xanders. Thankfully the train would be pulling into Union Station just a bit ahead of sundown, so Sarah was relatively confident she would not end up as lunchables for the next Vamp down in SoCal.

Sarah got a cab down to the Hyperion and walked through the door when she heard a voice that sounded a lot like David Boreanaz but wasn't quite the same "Cordy, we've got a new customer, can you… Buffy? I though you were..." Sarah gave him a smile. The way he looked at her made it quite obvious that Angel still had a crush on her. She would not tell him that Buffy was gone and dead. She did not want to break his heart like that. "Angel, we have a problem. Willow performed a spell to bring me back from the dead, and here I am, but… My Slayer Powers are gone. And what did a bunch of surprisingly non-bee-venom-resistant biker demons do, the second they found out the Hellmouth was slayerless? They attacked. We need help. And I can't believe I'm even saying that, but you said Faith was not yet lost and could be redeemed and maybe you are right. If there is redemption for Faith, she can go to Sunnydale and get all redempt-y." Sarah said, trying her best to affect some Buffy-speak.

"Buffy, I am so glad that you are alive. And I would come to help you in Sunnydale in a heartbeat, but I think you are right. I belong here in Los Angeles. Being near you would be too much temptation for me in the long run. But you do know that as part of her redemption Faith turned herself into prison, right? Do you really think we should stage a jailbreak as the first act in getting her onto the side of good again? Kinda goes against the whole 'not evil' thing, doesn't it?" "Well, Angel, let me at least talk to her. See what she's like after a year in prison. See whether she is even willing to help fight evil and all that. I know my friends are not really on board with getting her back, but who else is going to fight the monsters, Spike?" "Pff, Spike", Angel said dismissively, "That bleached blond Brit doesn't even have a soul. He could turn evil every second. In fact, I think he still is. Remind me, why you haven't staked him already? We should really not rely on a brain chipped vampire as the champion of all that's good in this world" "So, will you help me visit Faith in prison then?" Sarah asked "I guess I could", Angel responded "There are visitor hours in the morning tomorrow, which obviously I cannot attend, but I think we can get you booked for then. It's not like anybody except me ever bothers to visit Faith."

**Faith's PoV**

Life in prison was excruciatingly boring, but for the most part it was survivable. It was supposed to be a punishment, so boring was actually kind of okay. Faith had been given sessions with a shrink due to her having let slip her earlier suicidal tendencies and while she could not exactly tell him about having been in the employ of a snake demon or only killing Alan Finch due to mistaking him for a vampire, she could get some clarity on why exactly relationships with Buffy and her friends had gone to hell in the blink of an eye. She even got some insight into her life in Boston and while it still hurt to think of her messed up childhood, she was at least able to talk about it a bit more by now. She would never not think of her mother as a horrible woman who was to blame for a lot of her issues, but she could learn to grow into something more than the abuse survivor. And in a sense she was that: a survivor. She had survived Buffy putting a knife into her stomach. She had survived a coma when the doctors had given up on her and basically dumped her in a broom closet. She had survived Boston and with a bit of luck she might even survive her own self-destructive tendencies.

Faith did not exactly wish to make friends in prison, even though there were a few inmates who really did not deserve to be there – three strikes laws and all – and some who were actually decent people once one got to know them. There had been a few "tough girls" who wanted to start a fight with her, but after she punched one of them back with even half her Slayer-strength once they did not dare touch her. In fact, Faith even managed to break up some fights between other inmates simply by happening by and saying stuff like "So, what are _you _trying to do here, exactly". The wardens did not exactly like her, but appreciated that she was "easy to handle" except for some nightmares she got, but then again, that as well was depressingly common in a prison in the "Land of the Free". Faith was quite surprised when she heard – in broad daylight – that she had a visitor and should get ready to meet them in fifteen minutes. Angel was the only one who ever visited her and then only sporadically. Had he finally gotten rid of his daylight allergy? Well good for him, he seriously needed a tan…

**Sarah's PoV**

Sarah was a bit nervous. Cordelia had driven her to the prison and been surprisingly mature and chatty for what she remembered of the former High School alpha bitch. Apparently people could indeed change and high school was not exactly a place conducive to producing well adjusted human beings who treat others nicely. She was glad the change of scenery helped Cordelia be a more well-rounded human being and she was surprised to actually enjoy her company. If Cordelia was to be believed, even Wesley Windham Price, the caricature of a stuffy but incompetent British watcher had grown as a person. Well good for them. Sarah did not quite understand the whole "Pile-eeh-ah" thing and why they got home with a girl called Fred, but it actually gave her some hope that dimensions could be crossed in order for her to go home to Freddie and her two beautiful children. Oh, speaking of which, she still hadn't gotten around to searching for Freddie. Back in the days of Buffy season six getting filmed Sarah and Freddie had lived in Los Angeles and she even knew the address from back in the day, but she was almost certain she would not find him there, after all, in this world Sarah Michelle Gellar almost certainly did not exist and most likely was not dating Freddie Prince junior. At any rate, right now the most important thing was getting a certain brunette to embrace her destiny of saving the world so that she, Sarah Michelle Gellar, would not have to do it. She was a bit nervous about what to say, after all, the last time Faith and Buffy had met, they had not exactly parted on the most amicable of terms. She would just have to go in there and see how it went. After going through a metal detector and a manual screening and a few other bits of security theater, Sarah finally sat in the visitor room in front of a window waiting for Faith to arrive. As she finally got there, Sarah had to calm herself down again, before greeting her "Hello Faith..." - "You're not Buffy", Faith answered.

Author's note: So I got a bit of writing in on my day off work. I may at some point write a chapter about how they defeated the biker demons, but I think it is not all that important. I guess you'll be more interested in what on earth Faith's last sentence is about...


	5. Nighttime Musings

**Giles' PoV**

Goodness gracious. Ever since Anya had given her that call, Giles had not slept well for a single night. He'd had suspicions about Willow's abuse of magic far beyond her level of understanding before, but he had deluded himself into thinking it wasn't that bad. He knew that his now Buffy-less charges were planning something for quite some time, but he'd never thought them foolish enough to go along with Willow's dangerous and ill-advised idea. And now there was this woman who had apparently been brought from a parallel dimension into Buffy's…

Buffy's coffin, he had to face that Buffy was gone, he had done what the council expected of him, and yet he felt more like a failure than ever before in his life. Thankfully he could advise Anya on how to defeat the biker demons. He'd had toyed with the idea of a spell to turn gasoline into nitroglycerin before he decided to peruse the ancient tome on internal combustion related demons volumes thirty two to fifty five and finally found the answer there. It was an incredibly simple solution all things considered, but without a Slayer to guard the Hellmouth there would be need for more… unorthodox solutions. And just like Buffy during her Cruciamentum – that feeling ,of having failed not only a charge but a child, a daughter, he had never really overcome, almost overwhelmed him again – they would have to rely on brains not brute strength to best the challenges of this new world. And clearly he needed to go back to Sunnydale.

**Tara's PoV**

Tara should have listened to the voice inside her that told her Willow was messing with dangerous magics and doing something incredibly wrong and foolish. But she loved her and she had to admit that she was equal parts scared and in awe of her girlfriend's magical powers. If ever anything or anybody decided to piss of Willow, they'd be in a world of hurt. Tara knew that she herself would never be the victim of Willow's wrath, but she could not guarantee for anybody else. Not even for Xander, Willow's best friend since childhood. Tara could totally understand why the not-Buffy woman was angry. She even know she hadn't truly been angry at her, but who exactly would be happy if they were ripped out of there home dimension and stuffed into a coffin to dig their way out of? Despite her not being Buffy, Tara decided pretty early on that she was trustworthy enough. She did not seem to see a need to suck up to anybody and she knew a surprising amount of stuff about Buffy, her friends and their dynamic among each other. It even seemed she knew stuff that even Buffy could not have possibly known.

Tara was glad that she could do a spell that helped defeat the biker demons, but truth be told, there could have been a disaster if Spike had not protected Dawn. Whatever else Buffy and her doppelgänger _didn't _ share, both were equally concerned with the well-being of Dawn. Not-Buffy had hugged Dawn for almost half an hour when they saw each other. Tara even thought she'd heard the words "I'll make sure nothing bad ever happens to you, Dawnie. And if it's the last thing I do in this world" as they hugged. If Tara needed any convincing that the woman that woke up in Buffy's coffin was not Buffy, it was her desire to get Faith back into the fold. Buffy would never forgive Faith. She might not wish to kill Faith any more, but Buffy felt an immense sense of betrayal towards Faith. Tara hadn't really interacted with Faith much, so she did not share the sense of betrayal the others must feel at the way someone whom they would have considered a friend once turned out, but still she found their behavior towards her too harsh.

When Tara met Faith in Buffy's body, she saw a young woman on a very self-destructive path. A person who hated the world only because she hated herself being in it more than anything else. Tara knew that whatever her family would do to her, she would never turn out like Faith, but she could see how a person with a different character might react differently to her lot in life. Tara had been told she was dangerous, even worthless by almost everyone she met until Willow found the qualities in her that were worthy of love, even admiration. Faith had been told she was dangerous, wrong, worthless or even worse things until she became the Slayer. And then her Watcher – perhaps the only human Faith ever truly trusted – died and Faith blamed herself. Worthless, a failure. And when she came to Sunnydale, she'd be second best to Buffy. No, Tara did not think Faith ever truly hated Buffy. She wanted to be Buffy. And she hated the fact that she couldn't. Prison did not, by and large, produce better humans in this country, but for Faith it was different. Faith went into prison because she wanted to change. To atone. To wrestle with the demons inside, the ones that can't be slayed. Yes, Faith deserved another chance. And above all, Sunnydale needed a Slayer. And the Slayer needed a Watcher.

So it was good that Giles was coming back, as well. But still, something bugged Tara. She didn't think it was things with Willow, but still she could not sleep even though she was right next to her lying in bed. It was 3:00 AM and Tara could not remember any time she'd been neither asleep nor out "patrolling" - as Buffy called it – during this time of the night since she'd met Willow. Willow stirred in her sleep and it wasn't clear whether she was awake or not when she said Tara's name. Tara snuggled a bit closer to her girlfriend to calm her down. She did not want her to have sleepless nights, just because she sat up past midnight overthinking stuff.

**Xander's PoV**

"Honey, why did you defend the evil woman that wanted to kill you?" Anya suddenly said. "Ahn, it's three AM, can't we have this discussion some other time?" Xander said with just a hint of annoyance in his voice. "No we are having this discussion right now. Why do you want the woman who tried to kill you to come back to Sunnydale so she can try to kill you some more? Is it because you had sex with her once? Do you wish to have sex with her again?" Xander rolled his eyes before responding "Ahn, why would I wish to sleep with Faith when I have you? You are the best woman on earth and you know that and I love you."

"But why aren't you telling your friends about the engagement?", Anya asked. "Ahn, do you really think it is the right time to talk about this? I did not want to talk about the engagement while we were all preoccupied with coping with Buffy's death and then trying to get her back. And well, the last few days have been crazy what with biker demons and dimension traveling Buffy doppelgängers and… Look Anya, if it is so important to you, you can tell them. But I want everybody to be there when you do. Me, you, Willow, Tara, Giles, that weird not-Buffy woman. Heck, even Faith." Anya seemed to be content at her small victory "Fine, Xander. I will wait until we get them all in one room. But I will tell Faith that she can't have sex with you. You are mine now." Xander could hardly suppress a smile at the goofy way Anya was being romantic at times. "I know, Ahn. I know. Let's try to sleep. Tomorrow will be one hell of a day."

Author's Note: Haters will say 'This chapter's mostly filler' but don't underestimate the deviousness of authors to hide important stuff in "filler" chapters... Or maybe not... Who knows ;-)


	6. Jail conversation

**Chapter VI**

**Sarah's PoV**

"I-, You- What?", Sarah stammered "How-, Why-, How did you know?" "Oh come on, girl", Faith said "Why on earth would Buffy be coming here? I mean if she _did _need help it ain't exactly her style to ask it of the 'evil Slayer', is it now? She'd rather die than admit I _could_ even help her. Besides, she hated me. Well, before she died that is. How'd that happen anyway? Angel never really told me. You wouldn't happen to know the details, would you?" "Well Faith there was this… portal between dimensions and Dawn's blood had opened it and for some reason I got the idea that I could close it by jumping into it. So I did. Was one hell of a visual. Sadly it killed me. But then Willow messed with magics and put me in a coffin and now here I am..." Faith's facial expression was unreadable "So who or what are you? Some sort of demon that impersonates dead people? A manifestation of my subconscious? Yeah, I feel guilty about how things between me and Buffy turned out. Happy now? Can we have the 'what have we learned today' monologue now and roll credits?"

Sarah could not help but smirk. Faith had a way of making people crack up or make them uncomfortable – usually both. She finally composed herself enough to answer "Well, you see, I'm not a Buffy. But I play one on TV is what you could say. And well, whichever opinion I might share with Buffy, one I don't: I do not think you are irredeemably evil. Messed up, full of traumatic experiences, but if you ever get back to Sunnydale, you'll notice you are _far _from the only one. And right now I happen to know that you are the one woman in the world standing between me and unspeakable evil. And as I wish to kinda not die, I am willing to take this little leap of _faith." _Faith groaned "Puns with my name are _so _not funny. So which name should I call you by? I kinda figured 'B' would sound weird… And what exactly makes you think I'd be helping you." Sarah smiled before she answered "Well if you gotta initialize, go with SMG, people kinda tend to call me that a lot. But I really think it's a bit childish of you to call everybody with a single letter. And as for not leaving me an innocent New York girl trapped in SoCal and people who used to consider you their friend die, I guess there's a sentence about that… 'Because it's _wrong_'"

**Faith's PoV**

Faith gulped at the allusion to a pretty formative event in her life. Whoever this woman that "played a Buffy on TV" really was, she knew a hell of a lot more about her than real life Buffy ever bothered to learn. And well she reminded her of what she, Faith, had sworn herself she could be, what she wanted to become. She could really not say no. Even if that woman in front of her turned out to be evil or a mirage or some demonic trick, Buffy's friends needed help. And whether they wanted it, whether they deserved it, they would get it. And if it were to cost Faith Lehane her life, so be it. "Okay, _'SMG' _I'm in. Which demon needs slaying? And how do I remote-slay from prison?" not-Buffy looked at her with big Buffy eyes - damn she really did so _not_ need to get distracted by all the Buffy-shaped goodness - "Well, that's the thing. We're not going to fight a demon. And there'll be only one Slayer. I came to Sunnydale entirely without any Slayer powers. The first thing we need is go to a wine cellar that I don't know the location of to get a scythe only a Slayer can get. Should be a cake walk, really. Oh and we may or may not be hindered on the way by three dweebs who want to be super-villains and the literal manifestation of the First Evil, the evilest evil that ever eviled even before any evil ever eviled, yeah I never got that one either, while we get it. So, you know, the perfect way to reintegrate an ex-con into society, way better than therapy or halfway houses."

Faith had to admit that not-Buffy could make a convincing case for having played a Buffy on TV. She did not quite know what to make of this weird juxtaposition of three dweebs who sounded entirely harmless, a nuisance maybe, but harmless, gnats really, and what ever this 'first evil' thing was. An evil operator of British and American buses? Well whatever. She'd figure it out eventually. Right now that wasn't her main worry. No. She was way more worried about Buffy's friends tearing into her – figuratively or indeed literally – upon seeing her. And that she'd be powerless, no, unwilling to fight against even with all the magical Slayer scythes in this world. Sometimes she did miss working for the Mayor. Well, there's a reason people in steady public sector employment rarely ever quit their jobs…

**Sarah's PoV**

Well all things considered this had almost gone… well? Yes, Faith had looked through her right away – people might call her dumb, and indeed she did lack in the book learning department, that woman was hella perceptive – but she could get her to sign off on helping the old Scoobie gang or whatever was left of it. Now she only needed to convince Angel to activate his contacts to get one reformed delinquent out of jail. Whether it would be done through some lawyering – Angel had gotten weirdly quiet when she had suggested _that _\- or by getting a pardon from the governor through the famously incorruptible _wink wink nudge nudge_ California politics or simply by springing her from jail the old-fashioned way. After all, it had been always just kinda assumed that a Slayer is in prison because she chooses to, not because the latest in law enforcement facility safety measures holds a candle against Slayer strength and the cunning of someone like Faith. At any rate, Sarah had almost gotten to the bottom of the "To-Do List" she'd mentally made during the first few hours in this weird hell of a world. Fucking Joss Whedon. And why did she never bother to get a "SoCal according to the Buffyverse" map? It'd be hella useful to know where a certain wine cellar was. And had Nathan Fillion already achieved superpowers by now? Maybe Sarah should've warned Faith just in case… Oh, there was one more thing she absolutely _had to _do. And it involved a certain vampire…

Author's note: Not gonna lie, this was the hardest chapter to write so far. Ironically it is also the shortest. I made a few decisions regarding characters that may influence the plot going forward. I hope this chapter "works" as I intended.


	7. Plans coming together

**Chapter VII**

**Plans coming together**

"Spike" _bugger this_, William the Bloody, erstwhile Scourge of Europe and now chipped and neutered Ex-Big Bad, thought upon hearing the voice of Buffy with her damned shampoo commercial hair. "What do you want, Slayer?" Spike growled. "Why so aggressive? I did not decide to get torn out of my grave and thrown into Sunnydale, again, remember?" Buffy said with a surprisingly chipper voice. "Yeah, yeah, Buffy, I already told your little witch-friend what I thought of her stunt. But apparently you'd already given them an earful before. But I'm sure you didn't just come here to have pleasant conversation. So _what _do you want?" Buffy answered undeterred "Spike, it's not so much about what I want, but what _you _want. I know you are in love with me. And I am pretty sure that you know you won't have a chance as long as you are a bloodsucking soulless, well, whatever you are. I don't think there is a way to fix the bloodsucking thing, but then I dated a vegan once, so I can deal… But with the soulless? Yeah, major deal-breaker. And I heard there's a fix. I think you know the fix."

Where on earth had Blondie gotten that information? Spike had heard of the place where Vampires could get a soul. Of course no vampire had ever seen any great need to get a soul. Doesn't really help with the bloodsucking and the evilness. So he'd thought it was a myth. But if the Slayer talked about this as if it were a real thing… Who had told her? Was Angel big soul having spikey haired stupid broody Angel behind this? Hey, the chip had never stopped Spike from hurting other vampires… Maybe he should go to Los Angeles and dust the bugger? At any rate, Buffy got the face that looked like she wanted an answer. "Where and how did you get that information, Buffy?", Spike finally got out. "Does it matter, Spike? Let's just say, while I wasn't in Sunnydale recently, I had… access to certain… information. And I know you want to be a good man, Spike. So be who you are meant to be. Be who you want to be. For me." Buffy had all the tugs at Spike's useless non-beating heartstrings in her voice. Bugger this. "Blimey, Slayer, I'll do it. For you. I mean I would never hear the end of it otherwise, would I?"

**Xander's PoV**

"So why are we breaking and entering into the basement of the parents of some of guys we went to high-school with, again?" "We've been over this, Xander. The weird not-Buffy lady told us that those three guys want to take over Sunnydale of and somehow decided that Buffy was their arch-nemesis and we have to search their house for any evidence for their future crimes", Anya said a bit annoyed. "Okay, but even with the incompetence of Sunnydale police shouldn't we be going in with, you know, a plan, a getaway car and _not in the middle of the day_?" Xander said under his breath. "Relax honey. We've been over this. They'll be too busy sleeping until three P.M. because of their lengthy midnight sessions of Dungeons and Wizards or something to even notice we're in. Besides, this is purely a recon mission, to use the terminology of Buffy's cardbord-like ex-boyfriend.", Anya whispered in the direction of her boyfriend. "Sure Anya, but this _recon mission_" Xander said making the air quotes audible "would be going a lot better if you hadn't kept me up at night until 3 AM to have a heart to heart about our relationship. You know? In the movies the commandos never have eye bags down to their feet." "Guys, could you have your marriage quarrels at some other point and time", Willow chimed in. "It's bad enough that not-Buffy has decided we've got to do this on our own, we really don't want to wake up Warren. If he's even half as bad as we heard he was, I'd rather he doesn't surprise us." Xander and Anya rolled their eyes in unison "fine", they groaned.

Andrew's place was pretty much exactly what Xander had expected. Even when he himself had lived in his parents' basement, he'd had more style of interior decoration. Yes, there were some really cool action figures and memorabilia, but… It just screamed "Young single dweebs who really need to do something useful with their lives" And if even half of what they heard about Andrew's treatment of women had been right, therapy and getting beat up would be good first steps. There were however a disturbing number of things that looked like secret weapons. Willow and Tara recognized some demon conjuring artifacts and spell ingredients Xander saw a few things that were clearly of military nature. And Xander had to put his hand over Anya's mouth once when she thought she'd seen a bunny. What was it with that woman and bunnies? Xander was about to head out when he heard a voice from somewhere "Warren? You up yet? 'The Phantom Menace' totally _isn't _the worst disappointment ever. Besides, it was interesting to see how the politics of the Galactic Republic worked..." _Shit. _They had been discovered. Apparently one of the three dweebs did have a lighter sleep than they thought. Xander grabbed a vintage action figurine without really looking what it was and made for the door, Anya right behind him. He only saw from the corner of his eye that Willow was firing off some sort of bolt of energy or something. Well if it meant they got out clean, so much the better. Did Willow's hair turn just a shade darker just then?

**Sarah's PoV**

When they were all reunited in the Magic Box, Sarah breathed a sigh of relief that they had all made it back in one piece. She'd gotten Spike to get his soul back before he could even _think _of raping anybody. James Marsters had had it written into his contract back then that he would never have to play something like this again. But truth be told, it would _not _be out of character for a soulless fiend who had a hazy concept of "consent" to begin with to go one step to far in what had essentially been a BDSM relationship without a safeword. And unlike Buffy, Sarah did not have super strength to stop Spike from pulling shit like this...

It was a bit unfortunate that Willow, Xander, Anya and Tara had been discovered when they broke into the house of the "trio", but thankfully they had gotten out clean. They had been on the 'radar' of their former schoolmates already anyway, so not much of value was lost. Sarah had told them that she suspected there might be surveillance cameras and indeed there was a number of monitors in the Dweeb-Cave that was surprising even for video game addicts. Willow offered to do a spell to detect cameras, to which Tara shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Sarah said that they would find some other way to keep from being watched by three creeps and made a mental note to have a four-eye conversation with Tara about Willow's magic abuse.

_Author's Note: _As you can probably guess, life has a habit of getting in the way of writing recently, but I have gotten some downtime with not much to do other than plot this story out further, recently. So while I used to have the problem of going it one scene at a time, I now have some story ideas that are still some ways off but I haven't written them yet. I have one "non-canon" chapter in my files somewhere, that I ultimately decided was out of character for the time it would have happened and I thus abandoned it half-way. If you want it, you can have it while you're waiting for my next update. Oh and bonus points to all those who guessed which vampire Sarah was talking about last time around...


End file.
